A Classic Love Story

I remember the first time I watched Pretty Woman. I had been seeing my fiancé for several months and had just started spending more time with him and his dad and was spending the night every weekend. We’d order take-out and either rent a Redbox or browse the cable channels for something good. My fiancé’s dad didn’t want to rent a movie this one weekend, so we decided to channel surf. He came across a channel that was playing the ending to another movie but was advertising the movie up next, which happened to be Pretty Woman.

Now I had never seen the movie before. I have heard of it but knew nothing about it. He was disappointed in me because it was such a classic movie. He was so disappointed that he didn’t give us an option and decided that was our movie for the night. I felt indifferent about it. I kind of thought to myself I’d just play on my phone or sneak away and just go to bed early. Not only that, but I didn’t have a real desire to watch the movie and felt like I was being punished for my lack of interest.

As a kid, if I ever got punished for something I was told to sit on the couch for a time-out. Most of the time it would start as I’d pout and slouch down and hope my punishment was over soon enough. But somehow, I always managed to get sucked into whatever was on the television and found new things I liked. I ended up forgetting about being in time-out and focused on what was happening on the screen. It’s how I ended up finding some of my favorite movies.

That’s kind of what happened this night. The movie started, and I was giving it a chance to catch my attention before I figured out my next move. Before I knew it, I was hooked.

Vivian Ward (played by Julia Roberts) lives a fast life as a prostitute. She’s doing what she can to scrape by with her roommate, another prostitute, Kit De Luca (played by Laura San Giacomo). Kit is Vivian’s one-true friend she has to rely on to get by, day by day. During one of their nights at work, a car happens to pull up near the area they’re working on coincidence. Kit encourages Vivian to take that opportunity and greet a potential client.

Vivian does just that and goes to the passenger window and greets Edward Lewis (played by Richard Gere). Edward is lost and needs directions back to his hotel and lucky for him Vivian is the girl he needed to meet. As soon as Vivian gets into the car with Edward, we’re shown Vivian’s true self. Vivian charms Edward with her witty knowledge and a great sense of humor. She strikes intriguing thoughts into his head that he can’t begin to wrap his mind around.

As soon as Vivian guides him to the hotel Edward is so intrigued, he asks her to come up to his room. He’s so enthralled with the vibe she’s giving him, and he wants to interact with her some more, all while she’s under the impression he just wants to “pay her for her services”. Vivian agrees because she’s thinking to herself, she needs the money anyway, but little did they both know the connection they’d build with each other.

Edward takes his long coat and covers Vivian’s work attire up and takes her inside the hotel, and immediately she’s overwhelmed by how nice her surroundings are. You can feel the discomfort portrayed by Roberts in a very breathtaking performance. When Edward takes Vivian up to his Penthouse room, she’s very curious to know what Mr. Lewis does for business to afford the Penthouse. As they’re talking, room service makes its appearance and catches Vivian off guard. Edward had ordered strawberries and champagne. He described to Vivian how the strawberries brought out the flavor of the champagne. Vivian thinks Edward is trying to seduce her into feeling more comfortable for what she thinks is going to happen and asks to cut to the chase because she was on an hourly rate. Whereas Edward is trying to get Vivian to relax, so he asks what her rate for the entire night would be. This is where it gets interesting because Vivian shoots what she thinks is a rather high rate to Mr. Lewis and thinks he couldn’t possibly afford it. Edward without hesitation accepts her offer and says now she can take the time to relax.

This scene is one of my top 10 favorites from throughout the entire movie. It follows after the strawberries and champagne scene, and Vivian is in the bathroom. She’s trying to take care of her hygiene by flossing out the strawberry seeds that got stuck in her teeth. She calls out to Edward to let him know she’d be out in a minute. Edward is curious to know what Vivian had said because he didn’t hear her clearly and intrudes in on her. Vivian quickly hides the dental floss behind her back before he could see and tried to save herself the embarrassment. Edward immediately assumes it's drugs behind her back and wants her to get her things and leave. She defends herself and says that she was not doing drugs which leads Edward to check what was in her hand and found it was dental floss. He’s taken back and surprised to see it wasn’t what he thought. Vivian then proceeds to explain that you shouldn’t neglect your gums and Edward apologizes and lets her finish up.

At that moment I firmly believe that’s when Edward fully realized Vivian was different. She had this charm to her and had an intelligent seeming mind. The following morning is where the movie fully takes off from my perspective. Edward is going to be in town for the week and wants someone to be by his side and help get him through the events he needs to attend. He strikes a deal with Vivian for an even higher rate than she could’ve ever imagined. He offers her the full amount paid at the end of his stay with cash in between for outfits and such to help her play the part for him.

On the first day, Edward asks Vivian to buy herself a dress for dinner with an important set of people. Vivian ventures out with a wad of cash in her pocket to an extremely high-end side of town, Rodeo Drive. She makes her way into some stores and is immediately turned away for how she looks. Everyone could see “who she seemed like” but didn’t see who she was. After feeling defeated she makes her way back to the hotel where she’s greeted by Barney Thompson (played by Hector Elizondo) the hotel manager. Right away he reacts to her by her appearance and automatically assumes why she was there. Barney takes Vivian to his office to have a chat about her stay with Mr. Lewis and expects that after his stay she won’t be seen again at the hotel. He also asks her to dress more appropriately. Almost as quickly as Edward realized, Barney realized Vivian was different than he imagined her to be. She explained to him that she was trying to purchase clothes from stores on Rodeo Drive, but no one would help her. She was upset and trying to explain she needed a dress specifically for that same night for dinner with Edward.

To Vivian’s surprise, Barney gets on the phone and she assumes he’s calling to cops on her. Shockingly he was calling a friend over in a woman’s clothing department for help with Vivian. He then sends Vivian over to his friend Bridget and she doesn’t judge Vivian at all. She helps her get what she needs and relieves Vivian. After getting a proper dress for dinner, Vivian is concerned because she has no dinner etiquette and, in a panic, asks Barney for help. Barney is quick to help Vivian. He sets up a mock dinner set up with the proper utensils and dishware. He explains to Vivian in the easiest way for her to understand what to do, and what to expect. Later on, Vivian meets Edward down in the hotel’s lobby. Edward shows up and makes his way around searching the room for Vivian and can’t find her until she turns around in her seat. Edward seems stunned at her beautiful appearance. She greets him by telling him he’s late and he replies by telling her she is stunning.

Vivian: You're late.

Edward: You're stunning.

Vivian: You're forgiven.

From this point on we get to watch Vivian grow into this beautiful blossoming young woman. She begins to develop self-confidence, and for once she feels like she’s worth something. She gains enough confidence that she goes on a shopping spree because Edward wanted her to have more outfits to choose from. On her adventure of shopping, she returns to the store that refused her service. Of course, the woman who refused to help Vivian don’t recognize her in her newer attire. She then proceeds to rub in their face that they lost a significant amount of commission and isn’t bothered by it one bit.

Vivian: Hi, do you remember me?

Sales Lady: No, I'm sorry?

Vivian: I was in here yesterday, you wouldn't wait on me.

Sales Lady: Oh.

Vivian: You were going commission, right?

Sales Lady: Ah, yes.

Vivian: Big mistake! Big! Huge! I have to go shopping now.

She impresses everyone around her because of the kind of woman she truly is. Over the week Vivian and Edward have more outings they have to attend. Vivian shows off her new looks to Edward as he introduces her to others. Edward has a business attorney, Philip Stuckey (played by Jason Alexander), who is money hungry. Edward has made a lot of money from tearing companies apart, which has also made Stuckey a lot of money. Before Vivian was in the picture Edward could’ve been deemed to be a little cold when it came to any kind of emotion or remorse for doing what he does for business. Stuckey is only concerned about the money when Vivian becomes a part of the picture. He thinks Vivian is a spy for a company they’re currently trying to pull apart. Edward assures Stuckey that she’s no spy and is a “hooker”. Stuckey instantly calms down when he learns the truth, but what he does is disgusting. Edward was trying to get Stuckey to leave the situation alone but what he did was give Stuckey a reason to show his true colors.

There’s a scene where Edward excuses himself for a few moments and leaves Vivian with Stuckey alone. Stuckey makes it a point to ask Vivian for services after Edward was to leave town. At that moment Vivian is faced with the reality that she was still a “prostitute” and would still have to make a living after Edward’s departure. Once again Vivian’s self-esteem shot down. She lost all that confidence she had built herself.

On the way back to the hotel Vivian and Edward barely speak. When they get back to the room Edward can tell something is wrong with Vivian and asks for her to explain herself. Vivian demands to know why she had to pretend to be something she wasn’t if he was going to tell people who she was. Edward didn’t realize what had happened because he thought he was protecting her when he negatively outed her. He apologizes but Vivian wants to collect her things and leave. She asks for the payment he owes her and collects her belongings and waits for Edward to give her the money. Edward doesn’t know what to do but gives her the entire amount he promised her for the entire week and then leaves the room. Vivian looks at the money and decided to just leave it because she didn’t follow through with her end of the deal.

At this moment I feel like Vivian would’ve felt wrong if she took money that she didn’t earn, even though Edward still felt she deserved it for everything she had done for him already.

She left the hotel room and headed for the elevator with all her things. Edward noticed she had left the money behind and followed after her and apologized once again. Vivian explains to Edward how he had made her feel and she deserved better. She accepted his apology and went back to the room with him.

Throughout the movie, you feel the relationship between Vivian and Edward build. They both come from a pretty bad past and have their reasons for why they are, the way they are. Roberts and Gere are able to capture a very believable romantic chemistry and let the audience feel like it’s real. They both tell one another that romance is off the table and that it’s not for them. Although it’s hard to believe with the way they look at one another.

From my perspective, Vivian learns to love herself with the help of Edward. Edward is one of the first few people to treat her for her actual worth and not for what she does for a living. He gives her every reason why she should feel confident with who she is and unlock her true potential. She’s brilliant and shows that she has what it takes to give herself a better life if she pursues other life choices. Vivian is truly a one-of-a-kind woman that continues to prove everyone wrong as she gains that self-love and self-confidence for herself. Edward learns how to have emotions because of Vivian. He’s been built to be so emotionless when it came to his business that it affected all the romantic relationships he once had. Vivian teaches him that having emotions aren’t a bad thing and they can create something bigger and beautiful. You can gain a lot of new experiences when you show a little emotion in what you do. Over time, I believe they learn more about themselves so that they can fall together. Kind of like true love, as if they were meant to find each other the exact moment she did.

As much as I could continue to explain the movie, I don’t want to ruin the entire plotline. My perspective of the movie could be completely different from how others want to interpret it.

This movie is an older one, but I fell in love with it the first time watching it. This movie has become one of my all-time favorites to the point the movie was on almost every weekend and I would beg my fiancé and his dad to watch it with me. Still to this day, I will watch Pretty Woman over and over again, and still love every second of it. I will watch this movie as if I’ve never seen it in my life and react the same way I did the first time, and if you’ve made it this far into my writing and you’re interested in watching Pretty Woman, or if you have already seen it and love it as much as I do…I have something to share.

If you love Pretty Woman then you’ll definitely love The Runaway Bride also starring Julia Roberts and Richard Gere.